House votes to shield athletic revenue-sharing figures from disclosure

Published: April 27, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana House voted 91-4 this week to create new public records exemptions allowing universities to conceal information about how college athletics programs spend public dollars on revenue sharing with athletes.

Existing state law shields contract documents from being publicly disclosed for college athletes who earn money for their “Name, Image and Likeness,” or NIL, through third-party deals.

House Bill 608 by Rep. Tehmi Chassion, D-Lafayette, would extend public records exceptions to shield information on how money is distributed to athletes in a school’s “revenue-sharing” program. Those funds are paid to athletes and athletic programs under terms of a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement agreed to in 2025 by the NCAA.

Under terms of the settlement, each Division I university, such as LSU, can share $20.5 million annually with its athletes and determine how those funds are distributed. Those funds will increase by 4% in each of the next two years.